Twitter Embraces Its Social Role in TV: Like so many other things that the Twitter community has established on its own (hashtags and retweets, for example), the company is now fully embracing the role it plays in supplementing the TV-watching experience of millions of people. [RRW]

These conversations are not only opening new channels for consumer engagement with their favorite TV shows and fellow fans alike, but also are providing insight into which viewers are driving the conversations and when. [Nielson Wire]

MTV Exec: Social is a New Programming Platform: Many people are talking about how TV networks can leverage the power of social networks to help build their show audiences. But they may be missing the point. According to Dermot McCormack, EVP of Digital Media for MTV, social networks aren’t just for announcing when the next episode of Jersey Shore airs, but a whole new platform for media creation and distribution. [GigOM]

Multask Mania | Viewers Watch TV, Discuss on Social Sites: Almost 40% of TV viewers are discussing TV shows on social media sites, with almost three-quarters of TV viewers with broadband access, generally using the Internet at same time, per U.K.-based Ovum, a business/technology research firm. [MediaPost]

What's the Future of Social TV Look Like?: Real-time entertainment is what people are looking for–we always want something fresh to keep us up to date. But with this demand for real-time entertainment, how has it affected traditional TV? [Silicon Angle]

The Future of TV, From Apple to ZeeBox: “The future of TV” has become a buzzword over the last few years – but what if it was time to stop talking about it and acknowledge that the future has already arrived? [TNW]

Designed to educate parents about the impact that media has on kids' live and the importance of parents (and parenting) in this picture, the campaign is supported by a $40 million TV ad campaign, online manner ads, a microsite, and a social media component.

The goal of Power to the Parent is to get parents to be involved in kids' lives and how they are using media to help them make educated and safe choices when using various media. The campaign includes three parent-targeted TV spots, tilted Role Models, Stadium, and Time Spent, which are already airing and will continue to run over the next year.

Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, NBC Universal, and Time Warner Cable are supporting the TV campaign. The online initiative is supported by Common sense Media's partners Yahoo!, Facebook, GreatSchools, and Hulu, all of which will offer a connection to the campaign microsite via banner ads, links, and other content.

Universal Pictures launched an i-Trailer on August 4 to promote Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, debuting the marketing tool on the Yahoo! Movie site. The movie studio partnered with Mark Woollen and Associates to create it.

The i-Trailer has the look and feel of an 8-bit videogame and leads consumers who opt-in to comprehensive information about the film.

Individuals can control the path they go on as they discover facts and information about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Examples of featured information are where a scene was shot, what the music cue was and how a particular scene in the movie relates to the graphic novel.

The goal is to better engage Universal Pictures' target audience for the film, 13 to 34 year olds, in a one-on-one experience. After its debut on Yahoo! Movies, Universal also made the trailer available on the film's official site.

Connectonomics, a newly-released research study from Yahoo! and marketing research firm AddedValue, takes a look at women’s needs and how they relate to the digital and social media channels they use on a daily basis.

Key insights

Need States – the common ground: Despite demographic differences, women share the same core needs which revolve around personal growth and a shared interdependence on others. Companies may be better served by understanding women’s core “needs” or what drives and motivates them rather than subscribing to existing stereotypes about Xers vs. Millenials, moms vs. non moms, stay-at-home moms vs. working moms etc. Understanding women’s need states allows marketers to have more relevant conversations with them.

Different strokes for different channels, not just different folks: Various online channels cater to different need states. Women receive, share and are receptive to information in varying degrees on each of these channels. Understanding this is key to media and marketing effectiveness.

Power of Anonymity: The study found that the anonymity that content channels offer can lead to deeper emotional connections for women. Women said these sites offer users access to like-minded women and solutions to problems without the risk of being judged by people they know in real life.

Social media is not a silver bullet: Also surprising is the insight that social media is less relevant in the context of shopping, brands and purchase decisions. Content channels such as lifestyle and special interest sites offer 3x the impact on purchase decisions compared to other online channels, creating much better opportunities for advertisers to build relationships. Marketing messages resonate more with women when presented in the context of content channels as opposed to social media sites.

You can download an executive summary of the Yahoo! Connectomic study here (pdf).

ReadWriteWeb has an interesting piece about a research study, Trust Online: Young Adults’ Evaluation of Web Content, out of Northwestern University which found that the much lauded "digital natives" aren't so savvy and that they may trust Google a little too much.

Sure those digital kids can surf the web and text, but when it comes to web credibility and media literacy, they are lacking the skills necessary to properly vet digital resources.

"In Google we trust." That may very well be the motto of
today's young online users, a demographic group often dubbed the
"digital natives" due their apparent tech-savvy.

Having been born into a
world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely
existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances,
there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more
digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others.

That may not be true, as it turns out. A new study
coming out of Northwestern University, discovered that college students
have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search
engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results.

Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other
factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search
result, not that it's legit.

During the study, one of the researchers asked a study participant, "What is this website?" Oh, I don't know. The first thing that came up."

That exchange sums up the overall results from this study: many
students trusted in rankings above all else. In fact, a quarter of the
students, when assign information-seeking tasks, said they chose a
website because - and only because - it was the first search result.

When it comes to classroom management and keeping parents informed, a lot of teachers use the trusty ol flyer that they send home with students. Another popular tool for classroom management are Yahoo! Groups.

It may come as a surprise to a lot of people, but teachers and other educators are among the highest user demographics of Yahoo! Groups and this is also why we were integrating them into Yahoo! Teachers.

One of the big hurdles for teachers to use Yahoo! Groups was trying to get the parents to sign up and join the group. Given that Facebook has just crossed the 500 million users mark, chances are that most parents already have a Facebook account which makes it the next best choice for student-teacher-parent communication.

I was happily surprised to stumble on (thanks Matt!) this very well done Prezi on using Facebook Pages as a classroom management tool. Erin Schoening, the author of this Prezi, uses Facebook in their 1st Grade classroom to keep parents in the loop and provide narrative feedback to students. This is pretty ingenious.

Are you or any teachers you know using Facebook in the classroom? If so how's it working out? What are the concerns of parents? If you do use Facebook (or Yahoo! Groups for that matter) don't forget to get those permission slips signed.

To help writers, editors, and content creators write effectively for the
Web, Yahoo! has published "The
Yahoo! Style Guide:
The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content
for
the Digital World," the first guide of its kind to focus on the
specific
issues associated with developing content for the online medium.

The Yahoo! Style Guidetakes the best of the decades-old AP Stylebook and combines it
with the new grammar rules that apply - or should be applied - in today’s
online content world.

The Yahoo! Style Guide shows how to write for an
international audience, an audience that has no borders,
significant
because the Web has become a one-stop shop for people
communicating with
others around the globe. The guide is an essential tool for anyone
who
must write for the Internet with clarity and precision.

A curious bit of data emerged from
yesterday's study of Q1 2010 video metrics from Brightcove and
TubeMogul.

Twitter referrals to videos on every major category of
destination resulted in longer viewing times than any other traffic
source. A Twitter referral to a music video averaged a 2:33 viewing time
compared to 2:01 of time spent by people coming from Google.

Tweets
drove viewing sessions of 1:52 on broadcast locations, but traffic
coming from Facebook, Bing and Google were all in the 1:37 to 1:38
range. The exception to this rule was Tweets landing
on newspaper sites, where Yahoo! customers viewed one second longer than
Twitter refers.

Still, it is an interesting exercise to ponder
why a Twitter referral would tend to stay more engaged. Clearly the
social affinity aspect is at play, because Facebook refers, while not
quite as high, are also stronger in engagement than most other sources.

After all, a refer from a friend compels a viewer to watch longer, if
only to "get" what the friend wanted you to see in the video or just
because your social graph can target your tastes even more effectively
than a straight search.

Apple iPad User Analysis: Just a week after the iPad’s launch, we began to analyze the behavior of
the first iPad users on the Yahoo! network. While some of the findings
were expected, there were a few surprises that popped. Related:US Twitter Demographics & Stats[Yahoo! Mobile] [Barking Robot]

Facebook-to-English Translator: Despite the voluminous buzz, many commentators have missed the most
confusing announcement of all — new Facebook jargon. So, in the
interests of helping users understand what's going on, we've put
together a rough Facebook-to-English translator. Think of it as a handy
phrase-book that could help you navigate through the more common
situations you'll find yourself in. [Electronic Freedom Foundation]

Kids Blood Glucose Meter Attaches to Nintendo DS: Every time a kid uses Didget to check
his blood glucose level, it awards points that can be used to buy items
and unravel new game levels within an associated game. The idea behind Didget is to encourage kids manage their diabetes by
rewarding them for regular blood glucose testing. [BoingBoing]

TED TV: The new initiative will allow television broadcasters around the world
to air the talks for free as well as create programming around them. One
of the primary goals behind the project is to extend the reach of TED’s
idea-spreading mission into the developing world. [JED]

Top 10 Entertainment iPad Apps for Kids: Sure, the new gadget isn’t perfect, but not to worry—techie geniuses
have been up since its release, working through the kinks and quirks.
Nothing left to do but the fun stuff; grab your kids and try out some of
the latest entertainment apps, adapted or created for the iPad. [Kideos]

One of the things I enjoy most about my work is having the opportunity to talk with parents, educators and brands to dispel some of the myths or fears around kids' use of social media.

No matter the audience, my message is pretty consistent: Don't panic!

I'm also frequently asked to share some of my favorite digital parenting links, tips and other resources. So here we go! I've sorted through my bookmarks and put together this (hopefully) handy handout. Feel free to print it, tweet it and share it with anyone you think would find it helpful.

I'll be updating it as new issues and resources pop up on my radar. If you have a great resource, please feel free to share it in the comments section and I'll add it to a future draft of this handout.

Fisher-Price App Aims for Moms on Facebook: Targeting the many moms online, Mattel’s Fisher-Price is launching a Facebook app
Thursday that allows mothers to be more selective in choosing which of
their friends can see photos of their children. Mothers who go online, particularly the influential group of “mommy
bloggers,” present an important market for toy makers. [WSJ]

Android TV! | Google, Intel & Sony Join Forces: This trend is potentially much more disruptive than the introduction of
3D displays. Now a secret joint effort by Google, Intel and Sony to enter this
field in partnership has been revealed. It will bring Google’s Android
operating system and Chrome browser to TVs and set top boxes.

The technology has the potential to be disruptive to traditional
TV by making the full range of Internet content available on
television. [Collaborative Creativity]

What's TV's Next Business Model: It's hard to find TV content today that does not contain Web site
addresses, Twitter mentions, and text-based messages throughout. It's
accepted that even with these "light" reference points, as it stands now
TV's long-term prospects pale in comparison to those of the Internet,
mostly because TV content still has no direct-response mechanism.

US Children get Playboy, not Bugs Bunny in Cable Mix-up: Young viewers of children's television programs in North Carolina got a
glimpse of something far more risque than their favorite cartoons, when a
cable glitch broadcast two hours of the Playboy channel. (Oooops!) [Yahoo! News]

Entertainment Convergence in the UK Digital Home: The UK is
still at a relatively early stage of convergence when it comes to
digital entertainment such as TV shows, films, short-form video, games,
music and social networking. But momentum is building. [eMarketer]

In Africa,
where the Internet penetration rate is approximately 6.8 percent,
furthering Web access can create learning opportunities for local
entrepreneurs and support the United Nations’ Millennium Development
Goals to end poverty by 2015.[WWW Foundation]

SXSW Video Interview Roundup: SXSW 2010 was a gathering of innovative companies, forward thinking people,
and interactive influencers. While I didn’t have a chance to talk to all
15,000 attendees, I was able to speak to a few choice companies that
have progressive products in the social media and technology realm. [Edelman]

India's Rural Cell Movement: Just last month, nearly 20 million new mobile accounts were opened.
That’s more than double the people than have high speed Internet in the
entire country. Even in slums where people live on less than $2 a day,
everyone has a phone. If “Slumdog Millionaire” was more accurate, Jamal
wouldn’t have had to go on TV to find Latika. He could have just called
her, or worst case, called a few friends until he found her number. [TechCrunch][Yahoo! Movies]

Content Strategy is Much More than Web Copywriting: Where there should be content strategy and SEO strategy, we're often on
projects where we're focused much more on target audience personas,
design standards and project management charts, instead of content. The
web writer is then brought in, given the creative brief, the wireframe
and two weeks to "crank out the content." [Ignite Social Media]

The Justin Bieber Guide for Old People: Bad news, Old Person: No matter how much you try to avoid it, you will
have to eventually interact with someone to whom Justin Bieber
(BEE-BURR) is the sun around which their little life revolves. So we
present this Justin Bieber Guide for Old People to help you avoid
embarrassing yourself in front of your offspring, students, or patrons
of your candy shop. [Gawker]

Flemish Digital Youthwork Practices: On the 8th and 9th of February 2010, Steunpunt Jeugd, Flemish
knowledge and expertise center on youth, youthwork and youth policy,
organized a big congress (JET)
centered around youth, youth work and youth policy. One of these sessions is labeled "the 'e' in youthwork" that collected e-practices in Flemish youthwork. [Youth Work Online]

Democrats Edge Among Millennials Slipping: While the Republican Party picked up support from Millennials during
2009, this age group continues to favor the Democratic Party more than
do other generations. And the underlying political values of this new
generation continue to be significantly more liberal than those of other
generations on many measures. [Pew Research]

Harvard Law
Student Files Class Action Suit Against Google Over Buzz: One of her attorneys, Gary E. Mason of Washington, D.C.-based Mason Law
Firm LLP, said, "It's not so much that we're expecting to get millions
of people hundreds of dollars. What we'd like to see as result is a
commitment from Google that they're not going to do this again the next
time they launch a product." [ABC News]

Why Gen Y Isn't Buying Your Products: To put it bluntly,
if you’re uncomfortable with marketing to Generation Y, or refuse to
understand our unique demographic, your store will not see 2020. To
understand Generation Y is to overcome many obstacles in the retail
industry. [Retail Customer]

John Lennon Educational Bus: Throughout TEDActive, TEDsters had a chance to participate in something
truly magical: the making of a music video. The John
Lennon
Educational Tour Bus, a nonprofit mobile recording studio, travels
all around the country 10 months out of the year, providing free
hands-on workshops to students of all ages, working with both audio and
video projects. [TED Blog]

A Conversation About New Media & Education: It is about a world where students learn with a book in one hand and a
mouse in the other, rather than one where they are taught that book
culture is so fragile it needs to be protected from the computer. [Danielsaurus.com]

Disney Invites 'Goths' to the Party: Disney, the company that created "the happiest place on earth" and
cornered the market on pink, is embracing a darker aesthetic as it
reaches out to an unlikely audience for new merchandise: female "goths." [WSJ, Registration Required]

Dan Rosensweig is leaving his job overseeing Activision's Guitar Hero video game franchise to run Chegg. Chegg.com
has been trying to shake up the college textbook industry by allowing
students to rent the material required for their courses. The hiring was announced Tuesday.

Rosensweig is best known for his four-year stint as Yahoo's chief operating officer, where he worked closely with the Internet company's former CEO, Terry Semel. Rosensweig left Yahoo! after a management reshuffling in 2006.

This isn't Mr. Rosenweig's first foray into the education technology space. While at Yahoo! he was actively involved with my team on the Yahoo! For Teachers project. You can catch Dan's cameo in this promo video for Yahoo! Teachers.Dan is also current member of the DonorsChoose National Advisory Board.

Lady GaGa's Lessons for the Music Business: Underneath Gaga's haystack wigs is a case study of what it takes to
succeed in the music business today. Gaga, 23 years old, has made
shrewd use of new digital platforms, while still leveraging the clout
of a major label, an institution deemed obsolete by many proponents of
DIY culture (Thanks Ypulse!). [WSJ]

Conan O'Brien's Fate a Sign of the Times: While the "Tonight Show" ratings fell under O'Brien's
tenure as a whole, ratings amongst the younger demographics were better
than those of Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." According to the New York
Times, the median age of "Tonight Show" viewers fell by 10 years, from
55 to 45, in O'Brien's first month alone. [Colorado Daily]

Social Media Marketing, How Pepsi Got it Right: Social media marketing campaigns are proving to be goldmines rich with
customer engagement and insight that companies wouldn’t likely have
otherwise. Companies like PepsiCo are going to extensive lengths to
foster this type of collaboration with fans, and the payoff has been
big.[Mashable]

Will Creating a SWAT Team Help Google Get Social?: As successful as Google has been with plenty of other things —
including a little thing called search-related advertising — it has
struck out big-time in virtually every attempt at the social side of
the web. [GigaOM]

College Students Hate Email: In fact, the student joked that she only uses her email to “communicate
with her boss and adults.” She uses Facebook as
her preferred method of peer-to-peer communication – she has had a
Facebook thread running between the three of them for three years now. [Off Campus Media]

Tweet O' the Week: Can someone please buy Steve Jobs a new outfit! The man has more money than God and Oprah! A simple button down will do!" (via Scott Nevins) [Twitter]

Americans Sending 4 Times as Many Texts as Brits:There was a turning point a couple of years ago when it was suddenly
undeniable: It was either text message or be left behind. If you were
paying for it by the message, you suddenly had to find a plan, because
you started having more and more friends that wouldn't talk any other
way. Well, we're wondering if it has finally reached that point in the
U.K. - or if it's yet to come. [ReadWriteWeb]

Teen Drinking May Cause Irreversible Brain Damage: For teenagers, the effects of a drunken night out may linger long after the hangover wears off. A
recent study led by neuroscientist Susan Tapert of the University of
California, San Diego compared the brain scans of teens who drink
heavily with the scans of teens who don't. [NPR]

Open Source Social Innovation: Last week Bill Gates entered the digital publishing world by establishing the Gates Notes
- an online evolution of his now annual January letter sharing his
thoughts on the progress of the issues central to the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s interesting and symbolic that
the next chapter of his life story would include an “open source”
platform for sharing IP on social innovation. [Cheskin]